January was my 4th month of writing about books, 1st month of the year, and it's off to a pretty good start.

January 2012 Reading Recap

• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin {discussion}. This was a much hyped book that I liked ... but not loved.
• Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake {discussion}. My reaction in one word - Intense
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho {discussion}. Really liked it, and even for someone like myself who is not into "self-help" type books, I could appreciate this one, which is a sort of parable about following your destiny and listening to your heart.
• You Are Free: Stories, Danzy Senna {discussion}. Thought it was okay, but not especially riveting.
• 77 Shadow Street, Stephen King {discussion}. My reaction in 2 words - creepy good!

  

• The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides. I'm on the fence with this book. On the one hand, I thought it was over the top with the gazillion references to past literary novels and classics - 99% of which I hadn't read or heard of. But, I did enjoy the story, and the writing (for the most part) ... I plan to discuss this more next week.
  
• Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout. A series of short stories, all told about the same people living in a small town - all. Very good - a bit depressing though - but, I can appreciate books that show when life is not all good all the time.
  
• What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African American Inventors, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. An illustrated book that presented a lot of factual information in a non-boring way. This is the first book I actually bought this year.
  
• MLK: A Celebration in Word and Image. In a word - Fantastic! This short 64 page book is a collection of twenty-nine black-and-white images combined with powerful quotations by Dr. King. It is an awesome read, and really provided even more insight into this powerful figure in African American history ... the 2nd book I bought this year.
  

Favorite Book: 77 Shadow Street - and not just because I'm a Koontz fan-girl.

Least Favorite: This is a tie between The Marriage Plot and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - not that these were bad books - it's just that the other books were much more awesome.

• Number of Books Read: 9
• Number of Authors I'd Never Read Before: 8
• Number of Male/Female Authors: 5/4
• Places visited through reading: USA & Canada.
• Types of Books Read: Photo or Illustrated books/ Non-Fiction (2); YA (2); Adult Fiction (2); Short-stories (2); Horror/ Creepy (1)
• I Read About: Ghosts & Haunted Houses (1), Creepy Creatures (and a Haunted House) (1), Depressed grown-ups (3) Supernatural powers (1), People who did awesome things (3).

• {Bloggers Recommend} Book Series That Will Rock Your Socks Off
• Books That Will Make Reluctant Readers Into BookWorms
• Book Series That Both Adults and Young Adults Will Love

I've limited myself to using a book for no more than 3 challenges.

• The Cupcake War Challenge - January challenge of 2 Young Adult books complete.
  
• The Eclectic Reader Challenge - checked off the categories, Literary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction and Horror.
  
• 2014 Winter Olympics- read books from the countries, Canada & The USA.
  
• Speculative Fiction Challenge - Horror category - check!
  
• The 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge - 2 books complete.
  

• 5 Debut Authors Whose Books I Read and Loved in 2011
• Are the Books As Good As the Covers? {Finishing the 2011 List}
• 10 Intriguing Book Covers from January to June 2012
• 10 Books Coming Out in the First Half of 2012 That I'm Excited About Reading
• 10 Books Published in 2011 by African American Novelists {on My Reading List}